New Year's Promises
by DFM
Summary: Castle and Beckett ring in the New Year. Third in the Holiday Series, and follows Skiing and Subterfuge.


**Title: **New Year's Promises

**Pairing:** Castle/Beckett

**Rating:** PG

**Summary:** Castle and Beckett ring in the New Year. Third in the _Holiday Series_, and follows _Skiing and Subterfuge_.

**Disclaimer:** If it looks or sounds like something from Castle, I don't own it.

**Spoilers:** None

**A/N:** I hope all of you have a happy and safe New Year's Eve! See you in 2010 ;)

* * *

Kate Beckett pulled up in front of her father's house, slightly relieved to see that currently his was the only other car parked there. So she would have a chance to settle in without the immediate onslaught of other guests.

As she opened her door and walked to the trunk of her car, she pulled out her phone and, before she could chastise herself for the act, listened to the message that was still saved in her voicemail.

_"Hey, Beckett. I'm just calling to tell you how amazing the loft looks and to remind you that you are missing one hell of a party. I still can't believe you want to spend New Year's Eve with your father instead of your boyfriend. What is wrong with you? Anyway, I have to go make sure Mother hasn't imbibed all of our alcoholic beverages for the night. Call me later. Bye."_

Beckett let herself smile briefly as she tucked the phone back into her pocket. She'd never had a relationship that made her act so... girly, but since there was no one there to witness it, she allowed the brief indulgence as she pulled out her overnight and dress bag. The dress she'd packed for her dad's New Year's Eve party was conservative enough to not upset some of her older relative's sensibilities and not encourage any single guys they might try to set her up with, while still saying to the one's she didn't get along with that, while they might look down on her lifestyle of chasing down bad guys instead of baking cupcakes for school functions, she still had better legs than they did.

She was just inserting her key into the lock when the door swung open, revealing her slightly frazzled looking father, who smiled at her as if he hadn't seen her in months instead of the few days that it had been.

"Katie," he said simply, and pulled her into his arms.

'Oh yeah,' she thought to herself, like she had just remembered, 'this is why I dragged myself up here.'

She squeezed her arms around him affectionately before saying, "Okay, exactly what project, that should take 6 hours instead of the 2 that we have, did you leave for me?"

***

They had just finished straightening up the house when the first guests arrived. Beckett had gone to open the door, but her dad had pointed out the 'cop clothes' she was still wearing and shooed her off, saying that he could host on his own for at least a little while.

She'd never lived in this house, but when he'd moved here her dad had made sure she had a room, and even went so far as to make it an exact replica of the one she'd had in their apartment. Except this one looked out on a backyard instead of a busy New York street.

Setting her things down on the bed, she sat down besides them and let her eyes slip shut. She never realized how much she missed being that teenage girl until she came back here. Yes, she thought about her mother and what her loss had done to her father constantly, but she very rarely thought about the girl who had been replaced by the cop.

"Well, you don't look ready at all."

Beckett smiled at the voice and turned toward it. Her favorite cousin, Mary, was standing just inside the room, a six-month-old baby boy, Josh, balanced on her hip. Walking over to her, Beckett immediately took the child out of Mary's arms, swinging him up in the air before bringing him closer and blowing a raspberry of a kiss on his chubby cheek. He peeled with laughter, arms flailing before latching onto her hair. Extracting her locks carefully, Beckett grinned at her cousin. "Hi."

"Well, I found a babysitter for this one for the night," Mary commented, tugging affectionately on her son's foot. "Now I just need two more for the other rugrats."

"John couldn't come, I take it."

"His flight got delayed; we'll be lucky to see him before the 2nd at this point."

Beckett didn't know quite what to say to the sadness in her cousin's eyes, so she tried to distract her instead. "Well, Claire will latch onto Jake and follow him around for the rest of the night." They both laughed at the image of Claire, Mary's daughter, barnacle routine with Jake, their cousin Karen's long-term boyfriend. Claire was almost as in love with him as Karen was. "And I think Brad is old enough to take care of himself." Brad was 17-years-old and much more likely to be on babysitting duty than needing one himself.

"He's been acting really sad lately. His girlfriend broke up with him before winter break started."

"Merry Christmas," Beckett muttered and Mary nodded in agreement.

"Is this where the party is?" Karen asked, walking in and throwing her arm over Mary's shoulder and grinning at both of them. "I'm all for hanging out up here and avoiding Aunt Judy, but Uncle David looked about ready to send out a search party for you, Katie." Karen eyed Josh with something like fear before attempting to remove him from Beckett's arms. As soon as the baby started sniffling in protest, she immediately transferred him to his mother. "Maybe you should hold him while Katie gets ready."

***

"Incoming," Karen muttered, an hour later as the three cousins, plus Jake who had Claire on his back, her arms wrapped chokingly around his neck, and Josh who was balanced on Beckett's hip, determined to get ahold of her earrings. All of the adults tried not to let the panic show on their faces at the sight of Aunt Judy heading towards them, with a man around their age in tow, who was not successful in hiding his terror of the older woman.

"Aunt Judy," Mary said warmly and leaned over to hug the older woman.

Judy returned the embrace stiffly, before pulling back and examining her niece. "You're not pregnant again, are you dear?"

Mary self-consciously smoothed out the material of her dress. "No, I'm not."

She nodded, satisfied with the answer, before turning to Karen. Karen's chin tilted up defiantly, as if daring her aunt to say something. Aunt Judy never needed a dare.

"And you two?" She looked between Karen and Jake. "I still don't see a ring on your finger, but some girls don't go for that anymore. Are you going to be making an announcement today?"

Karen almost took a step towards her, but Jake smoothly put an arm around her shoulders before answering, "If we decide to take that step you will certainly hear about it."

Beckett took a deep breath and sent an apologetic look to the man that was standing awkwardly next to her aunt, she knew what was next.

"Kate, have you met Steve? He works with your father, he teaches French."

Beckett shook hands with Steve and smiled politely. "Nice to meet you, Steve. I think my dad did mention you. He said you were a vast improvement over Mr. Donaldson."

Steve laughed, relaxing just a little. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Apparently my predecessor left a very low bar to clear."

"I'm sure you would have cleared it either way. Dad says the kids love you."

Pleased with this progress, Aunt Judy jumped in with, "Steve is thinking about moving to the city, and since you're not seeing anyone at the moment, Katherine, I thought you could show him around."

Steve looked stunned, and Beckett had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at her aunt. She was still in the process of formulating a response that would save everyone some face, when she heard, "Beckett!" being called from behind her. Half the room turned with her, not sure which of them was being called, but she was the only one who recognized the red-headed girl who had called out, as well as the man next to her. Both had identical pleased expressions on their faces, which Beckett was sure was in response to her surprised one.

Alexis made it to her first, wrapping her in a side hug to avoid jostling Josh. Castle was just a split second behind Alexis, taking Beckett by surprise a second time by leaning down and brushing an 'acceptable for a room that contains a girl's father' kiss across her mouth.

"Hey, sorry we're late," Castle said, his grin not slipping an inch.

"Did your party get busted up? Please tell me that I'm not going to have to put in a call to anyone."

"Party?" Alexis asked, confused. "You mean Gram's party?"

Castle looked innocent when Alexis' question earned him a glare from Beckett. He was sure that the fact that she had a baby in one arm, an image he would have to consider later, and the other wrapped around his daughter, was the only reason she wasn't twisting his ear. "Did I not mention that it wasn't my party?"

"No, I don't believe you did."

"Well, we had to put in an appearance, but we're yours for the rest of the night." He spread his arms in a 'lucky you' gesture.

Beckett opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Aunt Judy. "Don't be rude, Katherine. Introduce us to your friends."

As she went around the circle, each member of her family had a different reaction to Castle and Alexis.

Mary smiled fondly, as if she'd known them forever, and said, "I've heard so much about both of you. It's nice to finally meet you."

Karen gave Castle a once over and winked at her. Beckett was just glad she refrained from including two thumbs up in the gesture.

Jake shook hands with both of them, and shared a look with Castle that probably meant something in guy speak like 'welcome to the club'.

Claire stared at Alexis and said, "Your hair is pretty," and had proceeded to giggle when Castle had protested that he had lovely hair. "You're silly."

Steve awkwardly greeted the newcomers, not knowing whether to apologize to Castle or ask for his autograph. He and Alexis spoke for a few minutes in French and that relaxed him slightly.

Beckett was a little surprised to find that she was holding her breath after preforming the introductions to her aunt, hoping that the older woman wouldn't say anything too offensive. She looked over both Castle and Alexis, before nodding, "It's nice to meet both of you. There's food over there on that table, you don't look like you eat enough, child," and walked off, claiming she had to go find one of her children.

"I knew I should have dated someone rich," Karen said teasingly, "That's the nicest I've ever seen the old bat."

"Hey, Mom," Brad walked over, holding out his cell to his mom, "Dad's on the phone. He says they finally have a departure time for him and..." Brad trailed off, momentarily distracted when he noticed Alexis, who smiled at him, blushing slightly.

Mary looked amusedly back and forth between Brad and Alexis, before taking the phone from her son. "Thanks, honey. Why don't you show Alexis where the food is? Aunt Judy seems to think she might be hungry."

"Sure," he agreed readily.

In a few quick moves, Beckett nudged Alexis forward, before switching Josh to her other side so that her hand was free to catch the back of Castle's jacket as he stepped forward, presumably to chaperone.

When the two teenagers left, Beckett leaned closer to Castle and whispered, "That was Brad, by the way."

He turned to her and pointed an accusing finger, clearly remembering the name from when she'd mentioned it at Thanksgiving. "You said you'd keep him away from her."

"Maybe if I'd known you were coming I would have had some sort of diversion planned."

"No you wouldn't."

"Probably not," she agreed, before leaning over and kissing his pout. "I'm glad you guys came."

"Wouldn't have missed it."

***

Beckett was putting the newly emptied champagne and sparkling cider bottle into the recycling when Castle walked into the kitchen holding two flutes of champagne. He held one out to her silently, which she gladly accepted.

Glancing at her watch and seeing that it was three minutes to midnight, she said, "We should probably get in there."

"It would be more fun if we didn't," he commented casually, a twinkle in his eyes.

"You're that afraid of kissing me in front of my dad?"

"Him and several of your burly looking uncles have been sending me warning looks all night, I'll have you know."

She nodded in mock sympathy. "Poor baby."

"Ooo, call me baby again."

She leaned casually against the kitchen counter, and lowered her voice to 'sultry level'. "Okay. You're being a big baby."

"That's not quite what I meant, but I'll take it." He reached out and took her hand, tugging her towards him, but, instead of leading her to the living room to watch the countdown with everyone, she was surprised when he led her to the door that opened to the backyard.

"Castle, it's freezing out here," she protested as they both sat down on the porch steps.

"Ah, every guys favorite opening." Before she could react, he had lifted her into his arms and had his arms around her, rubbing a hand up and down one of her arms. Somehow he managed to do this without either of them spilling a drop of champagne. "Warmer?"

"You think you're cute don't you?" She made no move to get up, however, and instead leaned closer to him.

"I really do, but more importantly I know that you think I am."

"Is that so?"

"It is. I'm afraid your secret is out, Detective."

Inside they heard raised voice begin their count. "Ten... Nine..."

Holding up his own glass, he clinked it to hers. "To a new year."

"To a new year," she repeated, and they both took a sip.

"... Three... Two... One... Happy New Year!"

Beckett leaned forward and captured Castle's mouth with hers, putting the promises for the year to come that she couldn't speak aloud, into this one embrace. When they drew apart she rested her forehead against his, eyes still shut, not wanting to lose the contact just yet.

"Happy New Year, Beckett."

"Happy New Year, Castle."

**The End**


End file.
